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Summer Festival Report: Lollapalooza, Day One

Friday was Lollapalooza’s first sellout crowd since the festival stopped touring the nation and took over Chicago’s Grant Park, back in 2005. The park, situated just across the street from Lake Michigan, is playing host to more than 120 bands on eight stages this weekend.

It’s no mystery that summer music festivals are hot. And I’ll do my best to not stick to the “oh-god-it-was-so-hot” narrative. But, fuck, it was hot yesterday, Africa hot. And I made the mistake of arriving at Grant Park at high noon, with the sun beating down from a cloudless sky.

The headliners are usually the draw for festivals, but it’s the middle-of-the-day, second-tier acts that make going worth your while. I mean, Jeff Tweedy even played a short set at Kidapalooza, the obligatory family-friendly stage, though I’m sure the designer-denim-clad hipster parents enjoyed it more than their kids.

Photos of Cat Power, Bloc Party, Radiohead, and more after the jump!

The Black Lips—quite possibly the strangest lot of dudes in town—played at 12:15 on the Bud Light Stage (one of the main stages). The Atlanta-based quartet opened for Jack White’s Raconteurs this winter and are known for on-stage antics involving bodily fluids. Drummer Joe Bradley is a total madman and I’m surprised he wasn’t carried off the stage with heat exhaustion. Meanwhile, the guitarist and lead singer made out just before the set ended and then spit all over the stage. “Dude, are they gay?” someone behind me asked. No, they’re just really weird.

The two main stages are at the north and south sides of the park, with the other six scattered in between. Large water-misting fans and tents selling over-priced beer offered a little bit of refuge … sort of. But not really. After getting my fill of the machine-generated mist, I caught the tail end of the __Manchester Orchestra__set, the Atlanta quintet (Atlanta, again?) played a couple of crescendo-heavy guitar tracks that weren’t too impressive, so I left.

__Yeasayer,__the Brooklyn band that defies category, played on the main stage at the south end of the park. It’s impossible to not dance like a white person to Yeasayer. And it’s impossible to not like them (I’m totally biased). The four vocalists create an impressive cacophany—definitely check these guys out.

There was a mad rush to the north side of the park around 3:45 to catch the Black Keys. The duo from Akron took the stage at 4:15 and proceeded to make more noise than two people should. Four fans were carried out of the crowd by their friends, and one was carried out on a stretcher by medics. Lead singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach asked if everyone was wearing sunscreen. After the crowd roared in response, he said, “Good. If you pass out somewhere drunk, we don’t want you sunburned.”

__Bloc Party__lead singer Kele Okereke took the stage in red shorts and a shirt bearing a large head of Barack Obama. He didn’t speak a word of propaganda, but the Brit’s shirt could be taken as a sign that, hey, maybe Obama wouldmake us look better to the rest of the world. But, realistically, what does an indie-rock singer from Britain have to do with the political conversation? I would have liked to stay for the remainder of their set, but CSS was playing and it’s a good thing I made my move when I did. The São Paulo natives were undoubtedly the best show of the day (before Radiohead), rocking the crowd with their electric, dance-driven rock. Their lead singer, who goes by the name Lovefoxxx, ran onstage in a red unitard adorned with plastic flowers and immediately yelled “Fuck you, Lollapalooza!” With her face painted red, white, and blue (what’s with all the expatriate patriotism?), she proceeded to run amok like a walking, squawking floral arrangement. At one point, the band was joined by the masked dancer from its newest video, who looked like a time-traveler from the 80s in her biker shorts and taffeta. Eventually, Lovefoxxx ripped off her unitard to expose a new, blue floral-print unitard, grabbed the mic, and shouted “This song is about dry vaginas and is dedicated to Ed from Grizzly Bear.”

I won’t lie: the majority of the people were there to see Radiohead. And there was a mass exodus akin to Midwestern white flight toward the south end of the park shortly before the band’s set was due to begin. My boss thinks Radiohead is the most self-serious band in the world, and I agree wholeheartedly. Self-seriousness aside, the Brits took the stage and amazingly—somehow—seemed to lower the temperature 10 degrees. The light show was as impressive as the music: large blades of light hanging like wind chimes across the stage. Fireworks went off towards the end and helicopters flew overhead, shining lights on and around Grant Park. It’s not implausible that Radiohead’s light technician was behind this. The crowd was talkative and restless and people began to filter out during the encore. I enjoyed the show immensely, but the atmosphere goes to show that festivals are undeniably the most sterile place to see a big-name headline act.